Chipboard album and gift bag

Today is Administrative Assistants day and while I did make the card for everyone in the office to sign for our office manager, Jen, I wanted to make her a little something just from me. Jen has a Maltese named Oscar and she is as crazy about little Oscar as I am about my little Lucy. I knew what I wanted to make her and have known for sometime but of course waited to the last minute *okie is such a procrastinator* partly because...well okay...totally because I have just been out of the mood to do any paper crafting. Good thing was that since I had been thinking about this I was able to sit down and get my cuts ready in Design Studio, save the file, and then do the cuts the next evening *okie thinks that DS can be such a life saver sometimes*.

The patterned paper I believe is from Making Memories.

For the gift bag I used Tags, Bags, Boxes and More. I cut the bag as big as I could for a 12x12 piece of paper. I had to "trick" my cricut into thinking it was cutting on a 12x24 mat so I could get to the very edges.

I used 1/4" grosgrain ribbon for the handles on the bag. I did add two dog bone brads to the front of the bag for some little extra embellishment.

The "I love my Dog" on the front is a 3-D sticker that I had in my stash and the colors worked wonderful for the paper.

I inked the edges with Chestnut Roan Cateye Chalk ink. I did use my ATG gun to put the bag together. And yes...the album does fit in the bag.......barely.........BUT IT DOES!!




For the album I used my Bind It All to hold the album together using 1" wires. For the cuts I used Paper Pups, Mini Monograms, Jasmine, George and Basic Shapes and Cuttin Up. This is the front and back of the album. I used Paper Pups for the puppy and Cuttin Up for the name Oscar. I also used a brad that has a fire hydrant on it with a piece of ribbon to kinda jazz up the front. I did also due a double stitch hand doodle around the front. On the back I just stamped it with my okieladybug stamp.


Here are page 1 and 2. I used Mini Monograms for the picture mats. I did make little removable white mats so she can trim her pictures to size more easily. The paw prints on the red paper are done with a paw stamp and a Versamark Watermark ink pad. It is the first time I have really gotten to use it...and I do believe I am gonna love the watermark pad!





Here is page 3 and 4. I used my Purple Cows cutter to cut the mat and chose the deckle blade *which is okie's favorite*. I used Jasmine for the photo corners. I added two little dog bone paper clips just for some extra embellishment since these two pages were a little plain. I wanted her to have a couple of pages that could hold good size photos.

And again the white mats are for picture reference.



Here is page 5 and 6. All the cuts on this one are from Paper Pups. I tried to make it into a scene of sorts. The tree and the birds are adhered directly onto the page but the puppy and dog house are pop dotted to give it a more dimensional look.






So maybe now I am getting back into the swing of things! *okie keeps her fingers crossed*

Knock Knock

Okay this is not a knock knock joke, just checkin to see if anyone is still around!! *okie figures everyone has probably abandoned her by now and wouldn't blame folks if they did*. I actually made two cards tonight, even turned on the Cricut! First time in a month!! I only made one of each of these as I was using Basic Grey 6x6 paper. I used the sketches from this weeks card challenge.

I am having a bit of a headache so not posting all the info on these but at least gonna post pics of the cards.

I was asked to show how I unmounted my stamps

So I took some pictures of how I did it. I posted this on the Cricut MB but some folks couldn't see the pictures and I was asked to post it on my blog as well.

Peel the label off the block. Different brands do differently. I had problems with Hero Art stamps but SU and Studio G's did fine. This particular stamp is a Studio G.


Peel the stamp off the block. You can pop it in the microwave for a few seconds but I was too lazy to stand in the kitchen and use the microwave so I just peeled them off.


Peel the foam off the stamp. Again different brands react different. The SU stamps were usually pretty easy to get off the foam. I did notice if there was residue on the SU stamps it was easily rubbed off with my finger.


Line up your label on the back of the stamp. I quickly learned that the labels are not always the exact size of the stamp. Since I use a Stamp Ma Jig for stamping most of the time I also figured it was not necessary to get it EXACTLY straight, however I do try to line up as best as I can.



Trim the label next to the stamp. Cutterbee scissors get closer to the edge than regular scissors.


And there you have it! Your stamp now has the label so it can be easily identified!! If the sticky is not on the label well I am thinking you can likely run it through your Xyron easily enough and get the label to stick better.



Stay tuned for when I get the Aleene's Tack It Over and Over to apply to the back of my stamps for storage and using with the acrylic blocks.

Getting closer to crafting!!

As I am typing this I am still under the influence or barbiturates so please forgive any mess ups *okie hopes she pays attention to the red underline of spell check at least*. I did get something done tonight craft related!!

I worked on unmounting some of my wood block stamps. A small feat but I am glad I did do something craft related. I was working rather slow and I think my daughter got 4 unmounted to my 1 *okie is not sure if it is due to the muscle relaxers or if her daughter is just a show off*.

Now my dilema is this....I am unmounting my stamps but I do NOT want the foam on my stamps. I prefer to put the foam under the paper I am stamping on and I know by getting rid of foam I can save even more space. Now now now before you die hard stamps say "OH DEAR LAWD OKIE YOU CAN'T DO THAT" well let me tell you.....yes I can...and yes I did *okie giggles to herself, probably not because she thought that was funny but that muscle relaxers make okie giggle*.

Uhh....what was I talking about *okie goes back to read what she typed*. OH YES! I am looking for something like the See-D's Cling. Since Inque Boutique went out of business I am not sure if this can be found *okie observes a moment of silence in the memory of Inque Boutique*.

So here is where you guys come in. If you guys can find any place that sells stuff like this please please plese let me know where I can purchase it!!

Oh and my newly unmounted stamps will be going in my Tim Holtz Unmounted Stamp Binders. I still TOTALLY love this method for stamp storage!!

Checking in

I still have my headache. Not as frequently and not as piercing right now, but still there. It does go away sometimes but right now it has decided to come back and visit. Talk about unwanted company!! *okie does not remember making an invitation for a headache...hhmmm...maybe she should go through that box of cards she made just to make sure*.

I did go to the doctor yesterday and she said it is likely nothing serious since I am not having any temperature, dizziness or other symptoms... likely just tension headaches but she was concerned about me having them everyday like I am. She prescribed Fioricet. It doesn't make the pain go away but it does knock my *beep* out! Uhh...maybe it does make the pain go away but I am knocked out before I realize the pain is gone *okie shrugs and makes a who in the heck knows face*

I took the medicine last night and it did eventually knock me out but not before I was slurring and kinda drooling a bit when I went to go check on Naomi. I got home and called my friend Carmen, aka Carmen 1, aka Scrappinbee, aka BEE, aka Agnes. She told me I sounded drunk and that I needed to go to bed. So I did go around 9 and was out by 9:30...missed the end of Castle but luckily Carmen was able to fill me in today while I was driving to and from client's houses.

I got done with work early today and came home and took my medicine and out I went again. I am getting ready to go to bed now since I took the medicine a bit ago. I will probably try and get done early with work again tomorrow so I can do a repeat. I think I might have been luckier tonight had I not groomed Lucy and had my neck in odd positions. I gotta feel better tomorrow night since LOST is on.

Okay signing off..sitting here at the computer makes my head hurt worse...goodnight!!

When will I ever

craft again?? This is getting a bit ridiculous! I have been having headaches for the last week. Never felt headaches like these, they are not as painful as my migraines, which is a good thing but they also don't respond to any medications I have tried.

I finally broke down and went to the clinic today and after waiting in the waiting room for over 4 hours *okie tries not to complain too much since she has no copay and doesn't have to pay for her prescriptions* I finally got to see a PA. After some simple tests and questions the PA decided it is tension, and it could be a result of my quitting smoking. I quickly asked her "OH!! so I should go back to smoking then!". Of course she quickly nixed that *okie thought she was really gonna like that PA there for a minute*. She gave me a new prescription to try. I took two pills as prescribed about an hour and a half ago...my head still hurts...maybe even a little worse *okie sighs* but the good thing is I think these dang pills are gonna knock me out since I feel like I could fall over right now.

The sad thing right now is that I have totally lost any desire to craft.

HOLY FREAKING *beep*

I can't believe it. I am just too excited. I think I am so excited I might be over being angry and moody now!!

So I was sitting here in my office at the school and one of the kids comes in talkin about her problems. I was trying to ignore her *okie cracks up laughin*, okay so I wasn't ignoring her but I just like to me mean and will read this to her *okie read this to the kid and she started laughing and said "it's nice of you to put me in your blog"*. Uhh...where was I? Oh yes, being excited!! Yeah so she comes in talkin and I am sitting here listening and all the sudden I look at her and say "Did you have a cigarette this morning?"

She said "yes"

I said "OMG! I CAN SMELL IT"

Of course she went to sniffin herself and said she couldn't smell it. Then she said "OMG! YOU ARE GETTING YOUR SENSE OF SMELL BACK!"

I was just so excited that I could smell it on her! I mean it was very faint but it was there!

Oh and I think I am about over wanting a cigarette now. I haven't even used my little plastic fake peppermint one in several days. I am still fighting a headache that I have been having for the last 3 days but shoot I am still excited! *okie thinks she is such a nerd*

****let me add****

Uhh..not sure why folks think I have lost my sense to smell before I quit smoking. I could smell quite well thank you very much, maybe even better than some people I know. I was just saying that my sense of smell has improved. And I shall note that my sense of taste is still the same........FOOD STILL TASTES AWESOME! But then again it did when I was smoking too!